The Longest Winter
Chapter 1
In a fluffy’s world one normally finds themselves either happy or miserable. This the tale of a fluffy that experiences both.
Our story begins under an old wooden porch outside of a tiny cottage on the outskirts of a small town. The leaves had begun to turn and a chill was in the air. Under the porch, a small ball of warmth managed to survive as a fluffy mare cried out in pain. She was giving birth to a batch of foals.
She would have liked to have birthed them earlier in the warmer days of summer, but her mate had little concern for her well being. He was a vicious brute who only cared about food and his carnal desire to mate. As the cold weather came in, he went out and disappeared into the village never to be seen again, leaving her alone to fend for herself.
She was lucky enough to find the cottage owned by an old woman who rarely left the house. She was visited by a young man once a week who brought her groceries and wood for the fire, but otherwise the house was lonely and quiet. The fireplace radiated enough heat through the floor to grant a slight bit of warmth under the porch. It would be just enough to keep the mare and her babies alive for the night.
The first foal was a tiny pink unicorn female with green mane. She was a runt that came out easily before the rest. The second was a green earthy male with orange mane, plump and fat thanks to an abnormally large umbilical cord connected to him. The third was a brown alicorn male, normal sized with black mane. And the fourth would have been a female light blue pegasus with white mane had it not been stillborn. It was a small litter, which was probably for the best considering how difficult it would be to find food.
The mother herself was a brown alicorn with white mane and a splash of white spots across her back and sides. She had never been given a name or a home; she was wild and free since the day she was abandoned by her fluffy family in the back alleyways of the village. Since then it had been a brutal struggle to survive. From one temporary shelter to the next she had hid from place to place around town before finally being chased to the outskirts by a restaurant owner who had caught her digging through his trash.
She managed to escape under a delivery truck and avoided her pursuer. It was here that she met her mate who spoke to her from an open sewer drain. He was a green pegasus with orange mane, but was filthy from months of living on the streets. He was kind at first, offering her a chicken bone he had been chewing on. But when she rejected his amorous advances he turned violent, forcing himself on her.
Being a stray, babies were the last thing she needed, and she was smart enough to know that winter was coming. With no home or owner to take care of her, her and her foals would have little chance for survival. The slim chance she did have relied on her mate choosing to stay and help provide food and warmth, but it quickly became apparent that he had no interest in caring for her. He had gotten what he wanted, and the next day he was gone. The chicken bone was all that remained of him. The mare grabbed it and ventured out from under the truck at dawn. She wandered down the outskirt street to the cottage, following the smell of a fireplace and baked bread.
It was there she found the hole under the porch where she now lay weeks later tending to her newborns. The chicken bone lay in the corner as a reminder of the father that had abandoned them. Despite her cruel fate, for just a few brief moments she was happy. She cleaned her babies and felt them nuzzled close to her. They were so small, eyes shut, barely able to crawl over to her teats for milk. She watched them drink what little milk she had to offer, and for just a little while she was able to experience true happiness.
But joy soon turned back into fear as reality set in. It would be dark soon, and the fireplace that kept the porch just above freezing would soon die down. With no food, the mare would be forced to risk relocating somewhere else, putting her babies’ lives in grave danger. She decided to stay put, wedging herself against the brick wall under the porch of the cottage. The wall still retained a bit of heat, hopefully enough to survive the night. Her babies burrowed into her fluff for warmth as she curled around them and covered them with her tail.
She hoped for a warm day tomorrow so she could scavenge for food. Her eyes drifted shut as the sun slowly sank below the horizon. Soon the night was upon them.
